I got a chance to go hear Erwin McManus in Tempe yesterday. I have been reading Erwin’s book, listening to his podcasts, and interacting with members of his staff at Mosaic for a while now.  This setting was some sort of business seminar for entrepenuers on wealth making and related things.  The first guy who spoke was the quintessential motivational speaker – almost verbatim from the movies You Me and Dupree or Yes Man (only they were more funny and engaging).  When this guy finally got down, Erwin came up and spoke for 45 minutes – no notes, no PowerPoint, and I think everybody was engaged.  He then took questions for another 45 minutes.  When he had to leave to fly out, 1/2 the people in the room left with the motivational guy calling out to us “we aren’t done yet”.  Yeah, dude, WE are!

Some thoughts from Erwin yesterday to chew on (most stuff came from his newest book Wide Awake (avaliable on Amazon).  I have come to sift more of Erwin than I used to, but I still find that much of what he talks about resonates with me.

Erwin talked about his relationship with his wife, Kim, and how they make marriage work when they are very different people.

“On being married to someone who is opposite you and trying to work with your spouse on changing directions or chasing a dream: “I don’t have to agree with your idea but I have trust who you are.”

This idea was really powerful for me as I am married to someone who is very different from me.  I was encouraged to know someone else has found a way to make this work.  Dani and I disagree a lot, but I know who she is and I know who she is – and I trust that.

Erwin also talked about how we have a hard time saying “thank you” from those who give us a compliment for something we did well, saying “Oh it was God not me”.  But then he said, “We refuse to blame God when we screw up, so we say ‘yeah, my bad.’”  He talked about how we begin to believe that we are incapable of doing good – it’s all God. Therefore, all we can do is neutral or bad, which leads us to live passively and wait for “well, if its God will, then….”, instead of stepping out and pursuing the dream God has awakened within us with courage and vision.

I recommend everything Erwin writes and the Mosaic Podcast – which does not mean I agree with it all.  But I don’t think you will be worse off for letting Erwin and others at Mosaic challenge and encourage you about what it means to be a follower of Christ moving through our world.

-Scott

“Over and over, when I ask God why all of these injustices are allowed to exist in the world, I can feel the Spirit whisper to me, “You tell me why we allow this to happen.  You are my body, my hands, my feet.” –Shane Claiborne (www.thesimpleway.com)

“The (Good Samaritan) story does not teach that we can have eternal life just by loving our neighbor.  We cannot get away with that nice legalism either.  The issue of our posture toward God still has to be taken into account.  But in God’s order nothing can substitute for loving people. And we define who our neighbor is by our love.  We make a neighbor of someone by caring from him or her.

So we don’t first define a class of people who will be our neighbor and then select only them as the subjects of our love – leaving the rest to lie where they fall.  Jesus deftly rejects the question “Who is my neighbor?” and substitutes the only question really relevant here: “To whom will I be a neighbor?”  And he knows that we can only this question case by case as we go through our days.  In the morning we cannot yet know who our neighbor will be that day.  The condition of our hearts will determine who along our path turns out to be our neighbor, and our faith in God will largely determine whom we have strength enough to make our neighbor.”

-Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy (p. 111)

Let’s be honest – loving people – is probably the most simple, yet difficult day-to-day call on our hearts and lives.  Claiborne’s question is insightful into the greatness of our responsibility in loving and caring for others in our world.  Willard writes with great simplicity and insight, “Jesus deftly rejects the question ‘Who is my neighbor?’ and substitutes the only question really relevant here ‘To whom will I be a neighbor?’….In the morning we cannot yet know who our neighbor will be that day.”

Doesn’t Willard’s interpretation make you more uncomfortable than just the simple phrase, “love people”?  I do not know about you, but his understanding leaves me with far less knowledge and control than I am comfortable with.  I want to know who I will have to serve and love and give to.  Jesus says, “You want control and power; I want you to reject those and choose love.”  (As I have mentioned in a previous post) when we fear and feel threatened by possible intimacy with someone (and let’s be honest, loving someone requires GREAT intimacy), then we are going to be tempted with the potential to grasp for power instead of opening ourselves up to that person and loving them.

Much of what stands in the way between us experiencing true community with others and between us and the people God has called us to serve and give our lives for is our own fear and desire for control.  Let’s be honest – we often deceive ourselves and others with reasoning that is far less spiritual than we would like to admit.  And we loathe the idea of publicly confessing the truth of how we interact with one another, but coming to terms with what our reality looks like is often the first step to beginning to move in a new direction.

(this review may contain spoilers – read at your own risk)

Funny, isn’t it?  That a movie that reignites a science-fiction phenomenon from the era of Jimi Hendrix and Berkley’s bra burnings could be exactly what our nation needs in this moment from a movie.

Star Trek is a move about hope amidst a time that is in desperate need of hope.  A movie that tells us that what we do matters.  A movie asks us if we are satisfied with our life, leaving us wondering what kind of life we were called and created to live.  As movies like The Kingdom, Syriana, and Body of Lies seek to paint our present world (and flirt with a little too-real portrayal of that which scares, terrifies, and raises difficult memories), Star Trek moves down a different path.

The movie was funny.  In both of my views, I found myself around people who were talking to each other, laughing together, and giving commentary about how great the film was (and how the casting was spot on).  While the background is space, the director found a way to highlight the film’s brightness, not its darkness.

The genre of science fiction and fantasy becomes accessible in this film.  There are two kinds of people who will walk into theaters to see this film.  The first group knows the original show, its characters and their nuances.  The second group is uninformed.  However, it was my experience that members of both groups connected with characters like Chekov, Sulu, Uhura, Spock, Bones and Kirk.  And Simon Pegg’s take on Montgomery Scott earned the most laughs and seemed the perfect balance of new twists, in the spirit of the original.

These characters have rough edges; they are imperfect with weaknesses and flaws.  Yet, their rough edges do not drive the viewer away; instead, they become winsome and attractive features that connect the viewers to the film.  Star Trek was teaching diversity and tolerance before it became en vogue (a Russian character during the Cold War, a black woman during the Civil Rights movement, etc.).

While the story was very plausible and credible from a voyeuristic perspective, the real strength of this film was its characters.  Even as the action-packed plot of this J.J. Abrams film partly followed in the path of films like Armageddon and Mission Impossible 3, intense dialogue scenes moved the development of the characters and plot forward here.  The development of these characters and their interaction with each other is the driving force of the film.  We find so much of ourselves, our dreams and fears, and our time in these men and women.  We wonder with Pike about Kirk’s future and if he was wasting his life screwing around in Iowa.  We feel caught in between Spock’s emotional brokenness manifested in fear of pursuing Nemo and Kirk’s reckless we-can’t-lost desire to pursue him.

While critics often find something about a film to harp on, this film had me falling head-over-heels and when the credits rolled, I looked at my wife and said, “It’s already over?!  I could have gone for another two hours.”

-Scott

“He who loves his dream of community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter…If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even when there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if on the contrary, we keep complaining that everything is paltry and petty, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow.” –Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

“There is no ideal community. Community is made of people with all their richness, but also with their weakness and poverty, of people who accept and forgive each other, who are vulnerable with each other. Humility and trust are more at the foundation of community than perfection.” -Jean Vannier, Community and Growth

Here’s the struggle. Here’s the rub. Find me a relationship that you have had that was EVERYTHING you intended for it to be. Because that’s not my experience. I have never had a relationship in my life turn out the way I planned or dreamed it would…that does not mean that my life is not full of meaningful, healthy relationships that inspire me, encourage me, and help me become daily the person that I need to be. But, life does not always turn out as planned.

What about you? I am not saying that you have a bad marriage or superficial relationships. But, are the relationships in your life – are they EXACT representations of your original mental pictures? If the answer is no they are not, then having healthy relationships in your life means dealing with what happens when your dreams and reality don’t match exactly as cards do in a game of Concentration. Sometimes when our dreams don’t become reality, the reality we find is different than our dreams, and often beyond our imagination.

I had a conversation with a man today that I cannot shake. I have reads book after book, and been able to lay my head on the pillow just fine, falling asleep without another thought. And then I have had conversations like this – where I cannot sleep because the story of someone’s life rings in my mind like an echoing guitar solo.

I never imagined that my night would include a conversation like this. And I think that not meeting expectations can be a good thing sometimes!

“The irony of masks is that although we wear them to make other people think well of us, they are drawn to us only when we take them off…You can only be loved to the extent that you are known.  You can be completely loved if you are completely known.”  -John Ortberg, Everybody’s Normal ‘Til You Get to Know Them

Community is only achieved in relation to our growth.  Growth comes at the cost of risk.  And only through risk can one come to know that thing called love.   Community is a regular place and pattern of risk.  For the most part, community is not irrational risk (although occasionally that may be required).  Instead, community is a series of calculated risks.  We risk being vulnerable.  We risk counting on another person coming through with their promise.  We risk that the person we think we know is the person they actually are.

Risk is costly.  It is simple, but is never easy.  We have to unlearn so many of our ingrained habits.  Our impatience and our busy scheduling.  Our refusal to allow ourselves to be limited by space and time.  Our tendency to generalize and not share with specific authenticity.  These are all places where Resurrection power and God’s grace have to enter our lives and strengthen us to make new habits out of old tendencies.  Because we have a responsibility for the people we live in community with, the burden to change weighs heavy upon our shoulders.  We cannot change ourselves or make ourselves the people we need to be.  But, by opening ourselves up to others and letting them see us for who we really are, we allow God to love us through them and heal our broken places by the role they will play in our lives.

If these ideas of community leave you uneasy, it’s because the discussion has moved from superficiality to deep love and deep knowledge.   These are beautiful, yet mature and serious relationships – the kind that we should have a healthy fear of.  (Fear being a healthy respect for, taking it seriously).  Most of us like the idea of “community”, but many of us are terrified of others knowing us, the real us, the us we rarely let anyone see.  Because to let them in that deeply requires us giving them the power and control to hurt us, reject us, and share what they know with others who do not have our best in mind.  And for those of us that fear that, there is but one option: power.

“The temptation to power is the greatest when intimacy is perceived as a threat.” -Henri Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus

This is the chapter with which I am the most familiar walking into this series.  However, finals season in school and my car accident this week have put this series back several places in terms of importance for me.

Also, this chapter is very difficult for me to wrestle through right now.  I feel like I had a near-death experience this week, so reading the words “there is a time to live and a time to die” raise a few emotions within me to say the least.

I believe these 22 verses help all of us wade into the reality of life, from death to life, from wounds to healing, mourning, dancing, weeping, speaking, peace, war, silence and speaking.  As I sit here constantly aware of the brevity of my life, trying to type with my scratched up hand that decided to punch the windshield, I resonate with the words of Qoheleth, the writer of Ecclesiastes.  I nod when I read, “For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?”  I cannot see beyond my lifetime; I cannot even tell you when my lifetime will end.  But I can live my life today and I can respond to life with flexibility, peace, creativity and gratitude that I get to take another breath.  After not, is not every breath I take in a gift from God?

Maybe I am just pensive and overly deep after the events of this week.  But I ask you, when you read this chapter and think about your life, what resounds within you? Can you find yourself and your experience here?  What is your response to God, based upon the life you are experiencing today?  Wade in and comment below.  I would love some company.

-Scott

Ecclesiastes 3 (New International Version)

Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything

¹ There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

² a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

⁹ What does the worker gain from his toil? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has laid on men. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. ¹² I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. ¹³ That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. ¹⁴ I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.

¹⁵ Whatever is has already been,
and what will be has been before;
and God will call the past to account. ^[a]

¹⁶ And I saw something else under the sun:
In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,
in the place of justice—wickedness was there.

¹⁷ I thought in my heart,
“God will bring to judgment
both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity,
a time for every deed.”

¹⁸ I also thought, “As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. ¹⁹ Man’s fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath ^[b] ; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. ²⁰ All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. ²¹ Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal ^[c] goes down into the earth?”

²² So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?

For those of you who did not follow yesterday’s events via Twitter and Facebook, I had quite an evening.  I was driving home from North Phoenix Baptist Church after completing my work day and lifting in the gym.  I turned on to Central to complete my 4 minute drive home.  I looked down to put my phone in the pocket of my shorts and I slammed into a Toyota Tundra without the slightest amount of braking.  40ish mph in my Nissan Altima.  I must have hit the truck just right because it flipped on its side.  I never stiffened up and I felt the impact before my brain registered seeing anything.  When the airbag dust had settled and the two vehicles came to a stop, I checked to make sure everything that is Scott was still intact.  Still had both legs, arms, hands and I wasnt bleeding from my head.  My left hand had gone into the windshield (evidently I don’t punch as well as Oscar De La Hoya).  But other than that, I was okay.  I got out of my car and watched bystanders pull the man out of his truck which was resting on the passenger side.

A Phoenix PD SUV cruiser had been 1/4 mile behind when the accident happened.  They were on scene quickly, along with Phoenix Fire and they were all awesome.  A nice couple who watched it happened helped stop my hand from bleeding and pulled a couple pieces of glass out of my hand.  I don’t remember their names, but they were incredible.

Dani got their pretty quickly, and we went to St. Joes to get Xrays (which all came back negative) and to get my hand cleaned out.  I slept alright last night, but woke up with a sore chest from the seatbelt and airbag.

For those of you who have heard the story in other settings or at Crash, I was in a rollover almost 15 years ago in Northern Arizona.  This makes the second serious accident I walked away from.  Both times, bystanders remarked, “somebody must have gotten seriously hurt or killed in that accident.”  And yet, both times, everyone involved walked away on their own two feet.

The first accident took place when I was almost 9, and it has been the major touchpoint in my life that reminds me that God has a significant purpose for my life.  This second accident is now another touchpoint.  Yes, it was surreal in the midst of the impact and it does put a lot of things in perspective.  But, more than anything else, I am reminded that God is the creator and sustainer of all life.  In Him, we live and move and have our being.  We are created in His Image, His workmanship, prepared in advance to do good works.  So, as I continue to flesh out my life purpose, and celebrate my graduation from seminary and ordination next week, I am grateful for the life God continues to give back to me and thankful for the community of people I get to participate in the cosmic renewal among, as we seek to see the Resurrection create a new world through our lives.

Look below for more pictures of my car, my cut up hand and the bruise my seat belt left.  thanks for the messages, texts, comments, and twitter replies.  Dani and I know that we are loved.

-Scott

Day Two of this journey has me musing on two more sections from Ecclesiastes.  Today I am tackling Chapter Two, verses 3 and verses 24-26.

First, Ecclesiastes 2:3 says, “I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.”  This question about meaning is one that I have seen expressed in several contexts.  Most recently, I saw it expressed in a 1998 German film entitled, Run Lola Run.  The film’s question is around the idea of fate, chance, meaning, and the effects our choices make, all under the pressure of a deadline that has deadly consequences when unmet.  As I end my experience in seminary, I am reflecting on the meaning of my last three years of study.  My brother graduates in 90 minutes – he is asking the same question.  Many of my friends find themselves in a similar place – “what is the meaning in my life?  Why am I doing what I do?  Is this really what I feel my life is supposed to be about?”

Second, Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 reads, “A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”

In Chapter 2 and especially these verses, the writer of Ecclesiastes raises the reality of death as the great equalizer for all of our lives.  Death comes to us all.  Our lives are moving forward and meaning is like the wind, impossible to grasp.  The more and I read this book, the more and more I am tempted toward resigning myself to the depressing reality of my life’s brevity on this planet.  However, like the writer here, I am reminded that I must maintain in tension the reality of life’s meaning and value amidst death, “God giv(ing) wisdom, knowledge, and happiness”.  Our ability to enjoy the fruit of our work or the blessing of relationships with our family and friends is a gift from God.  Every time we raise our glasses to toast, every time we break bread in a celebration meal, every time we sit back and take a deep breath knowing that our work is done in a project – we have the opportunity to recognize God’s hand and presence in our lives.

This book is all about tension and I am learning to lean deep within both of these realities.

-Scott

Today, I will be exploring two sections from Chapter 1 of Ecclesiastes.  I will follow a similar format each day.  I will pick 2 or 3 sections that connect with me.  I will share my commentary through my life and then invite you to comment or share about sections that resonate with you.

² “Meaningless! Meaningless!”  says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”

My Theology and Film professor, Robert Johnston, refers to this passage as the epigraph for the book.  This passage gives a summary or abstract of the book’s theme that will follow.  I think this short phrase embodies many people that i interact with in our culture.  What is life’s meaning?  Where does it come from?  How do I decipher it?  Does what I decipher apply to anyone else beyond myself?  Many people who have hit the proverbial wall in life respond by quoting Ecclesiastes 1:2.  I have never seen a church, bible study, or experience that took this passage seriously as a source for instruction about life’s meaning.  In a class on the Old Testament, I had a professor write off the whole book minus two verses and gave it ten minutes during a 16 week semester on the second half of the Old Testament.  This book is all about meaning.

¹⁶ I thought to myself, “Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷ Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.  ¹⁸ For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.

These verses remind me of a conversation I had today with a friend.  Our recent exploration of the implications of taking the Resurrection of Jesus seriously within the context of the early church and today has made us anal worshippers in corporate experiences.  We were discussing how we both had reacted similarly to a song that we felt like misrepresented the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus.  While I was struggling to decide what to do with my knowledge, my friend reminded me that the journey we were embarking on was not a sprint but a marathon.

I believe knowledge can lead to sorrow and grief because we no longer see the world the same way.  Once our minds are expanded to realities we did not know before, we are responsible for this knowledge.  We have to reinterpret our thoughts and convictions in light of this.  What we believe can only be static if our experience is that – static.  Some might find this troublesome, but my experience of the truth and meaning of life is always growing.  Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, ^“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”  The writer of Ecclesiastes, self-described in the book by the Hebrew word Qoheleth, is describing me and my life.  I trust my understanding of who God is, yet I know that i am always understanding in part.  Yet, as I learn more and more, my responsibility grows as well.

See you tomorrow for chapter 2.

-Scott

So, I have been struggling to post regularly on the blog.  Maybe its the fact that I have six seminary classes going while doing summer prep at church.  Maybe its because I am just days from graduation, so motivation is an issue in all of my life.  But I am looking for habits that will help restore discipline in my life.

Starting tomorrow, I will begin a new blog series called “The Messiness of Life.”  The series will tackle a chapter of Ecclesiastes each day.  I have been engaging this book a great deal through my Theology and Film class and have found it very interesting.

So, as I work towards my final paper in this class, join me here every day for a new post.  I won’t discuss every verse or issue – I will leave space for you to jump in and explore yourself or push back on what I had written.

As we all engage a time of unexpected financial strain and come to terms with our past experiences, wondering if other people would treat us the same if they knew the skeletons in our closet, I think Ecclesiastes is a great book to engage the messiness of our lives and this moment.

See you every day for the next two weeks.

-Scott